Short Women Have Lower Risk Of Cancer

As a tall-ish person, let me be the first to say “SERIOUSLY?”

And then answer my own question with a “Yes.”

A new study published in The Lancet Oncology found that the shorter women are, the lower their cancer risk. Or, vice versa, the taller women are the greater their risk.

In fact, British researchers determined that the risk of cancer in women jumps 16 percent with each 4-inch increase in height.

To determine whether stature had anything to do with cancer risk, the researchers, led by Dr. Jane Green of Oxford University, followed 1.3 million middle-aged women from the United Kingdom for 10 years.

Even after accounting for the women’s different lifestyles and socio-economic backgrounds, there was still a significant jump in cancer risk associated with increasing stature. And it wasn’t just one kind of cancer. Taller women were more likely to develop cancers of the breast, ovary, uterus and bowel, as well as leukemia and melanoma.

So if you’re a tall woman, just add this to the list of reasons why being tall and female is often a pretty mixed bag.

It also seems worth noting that the study says “it’s unclear how these particular findings apply to men.”